The Next Fire Lord: and the Wu Xing Master
by The Edgy Bubble
Summary: Two years after peace spread through the Fire Nation things go wrong as Fire Lord Zuko is dethroned by someone he thought was gone forever. Now Zuko and Toph must travel the world to find the strength and means to win his honor, country, and life back.
1. The New Fire Lord

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Note:**** So this is my first Avatar fic. It takes place two years after the events of the day of Sozen's (Ozai's) Comet and will circle around several characters in multiple plot-lines. The basis of this future is explained pretty quickly, so don't think a little summary is necessary. Hopefully you guys like it.**

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**Oh, and although this is an Adventure fic, there will be something of a Toph x Zuko vibe, with subtler themes of Zhao x Azula, some hints at Aang x Katara as well as Zuko x Katara in later chapters. Other pairings may emerge in the future, too.**

**Besides the weird shipping, I hope you guys enjoy the plot, as well.**

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Book One:

**Air**

Chapter One:

**The New Fire Lord**

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**'**There is probably little use for documenting this day in a journal, but I've never been a man to miss out on the details. But today could not go unnoticed by any soul in the now, once again honorable, Fire Nation. The day of my coronation will forever remain in the history of this great country as the day the masses were saved from the foolishness of my young predecessor, if that's what I could call him. He was little of a Fire Lord, preaching peace and docility. It sickened me for the few years he held the throne to see him turn my homeland into such a weak embarrassment. He was a boy who knew nothing of how to govern such a powerful land, he let our potential stagnate and wither as he recalled several of our military's most esteemed branches in hopes of spreading his delusions of harmony.

But being a boy of few years and less experience, he hadn't learned to keep an eye out for the details. He forgot that his forefathers' great reign over this nation would not allow us to roll over as feebly as he hoped. He overlooked the fact that his people were now angry and impatient. He failed to notice that half of his subjects were once proud members of the Fire Nation's Great Army and Navy, all of which suffered the same unrest and disgust I did. They lashed out with meager raids and pathetic assassination attempts, never seeing any success, what they needed was a leader. And I happily stepped forward.  
I didn't spend two and a half years living among the peasantry, under a different name, only to forget my ambitions.

All that time ago, after only narrowing escaping my miscalculations at the Northern Raid I had stowed away on one of my own ships that managed to spare itself from the wrath of the Avatar. I had a chance to announce my survival, to step up and try again, but I wasn't a fool. With my defeat I knew I was destined to suffer the same fate as that fat oaf once known as the Dragon of the West. So I hid myself, waited for a chance, bided my time, and the rest is history. Or at least it will be.**'**

He set down the single, extravagant brush, careful not to spill the ink on the even more extravagant sleeves of his blood-red robes. He admired the carefully woven characters on the paper of the scroll in front of him as they dried. He hadn't planned on recounting the events of the past two years, but it seemed appropriate for the day. He leaned back in the crimson armchair, growing more comfortable in his new quarters with every minute that passed.  
He belonged there.  
He had spent too long in ugly little houses with disgusting little rooms. He was finally surrounded by the extravagance he deserved, the history he deserved to be a part of.

It was only a moment before his moment of quiet admiration was interrupted.

"Fire Lord Zhao, sir." A male servant opened the door ceremoniously, stepping to the side and bowing with a straight back.

The former Admiral didn't bother opening his eyes at the interruption, but his brow did furrow with annoyance despite the pride swelling in his chest at hearing those two coveted words before his name.

"What is it?" He asked deeply, letting his irritation be heard.

"Y-Your request has been fulfilled." The male servant stuttered with the fear Zhao took pride in inflicting in most of his subjects. Fear had the same effect as admiration when it came to loyalty, and betrayal is combated by love. Admiration was when they loved you too much to betray you, but fear was spurred by the love for themselves. In the end, people only really love themselves.

Fire Lord Zhao had to think for a moment to remember which 'request' this servant was talking about. He leaned his head against the back of the armchair, he almost smiled as he felt the golden Royal Ornament in his, now long, hair shift a little with the pressure.

"Your men have located the prisoner in question, they are now awaiting your orders in what to do with it." The servant elaborated after the silence was too unbearable for him.

Zhao's eyes opened quickly as he stood up from his seat. His day just got more interesting. He hadn't expected them to find her so quickly.

"Tell them that it is the Fire Lord's wish to bring the prisoner to the palace." Zhao voiced with cold humor as he removed the long wooden weight straightening out the side of the scroll which was now dry.

"Yes, Fire Lord Zhao." The man bowed lowly before quickly backing out of the room and closing the door quietly.

Zhao was left in the silent room again, he wound the scroll. It was only a moment before his eyes found the large portrait in the elaborate room. A family portrait.  
He only wondered why the previous Fire Lord would've kept the portrait in his quarters for a moment until he moved onto who he should punish for not taking it down. But, despite that, his eyes scanned the four painted faces with slight interest. A face that struck fear in thousands despite his current weakness, an incredibly beautiful one that hadn't been seen for half a decade, a young one that had yet to be grotesquely marred by the owner of the first face, and, lastly, an even younger face of immature beauty parallel to her mothers, but with the same dangerous look in her eye as her father's.

Memories of the past came flooding back with these nostalgic faces as plans for the future stewed in his thoughts. Thoughts of the prisoner now being granted invitation to the Fire Nation Palace was added to the mix of schemes and plans.

A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips.

"This is going to be interesting." The Fire Lord joked quietly as he decided to retire for the evening.

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_How long have I been in this room?  
_The young man stirred awake, the same question he asked himself as he fell asleep haunted him again the moment he regained consciousness. His jaw ached as he lifted it from the stone floor.

The former Prince, and once Fire Lord, had spent his share of time in prison cells, but never any this cruel.

No windows, no lights, only an equally window-less metal door that was impervious to any degree of firebending capable of even a master and locked out even the smallest sliver of light from getting into the dark cell. He shuffled in the darkness as he balanced himself from lying on his chest to kneeling on his sore knees. He grunted hoarsely with the pain of his muscles when he tried to move his shoulders. His arms had been restrained behind his back for as long as he had been in this room.

_How long has that been?_

He asked himself again.  
He knew he lost his voice two sleeps ago. His pointless yelling, shouts, and screams hadn't been heard by anyone who made their existence known to him. And he only received dry meals, stale and spiky bread with slightly rotten meat, for no reason he could think of other than to purposefully traumatize his throat from making another sound for a while longer.  
If only he had a window… something that could let him see the passing of time… that would at least give him some sort of illusion of control over this situation. But instead his eyes hadn't seen light since the last time a guard opened that door to scrape an almost barren plate across the floor towards him, and even then the weak fire-light seemed blinding. His eyes were too used to the dark.  
_How the hell did I let myself get here?  
_The scarred boy clenched his already weak and achy jaw with frustration. He wanted to scream again, to yell at the top of his lungs out of pure anger, but he had already done too much of that. Instead the prisoner turned over onto his back, stretching his apathy-ridden muscles the best he could, wincing at the pain, baring his teeth slightly.

_I have to get out of here._

_I have to get control of my kingdom again._

_I have to see Uncle again._

_I have to see everyone again._

_Even Mai…  
Even if she's tried to 'kill' me countless times since I had to leave her again, to see her face again right now... Any face…  
Any except one….  
_He thought of the man who was probably enjoying his stay in his palace right now, the devious smile he thought had died over two years ago.  
The scarred boy wanted to scream and yell and kick and turn this whole place into ash again. But he couldn't do any of those things.

_I'm going to kill him._  
Zuko promised himself as he flexed his shoulders again, letting out another muted grunt of pain.

_I need to find a way out of here first!_

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_You know, when they said this place was unreachable, they really meant it didn't they?  
_The fourteen-year-old thought to herself as she wiped the sweat from her brow.  
_It's a good thing that that fire nation ship came by, though.  
_She thought happily to herself as she dipped the scraggily metal oar back into the water to propel her little improvised boat another few feet through the water. The ship had probably noticed a few minutes after she already set sail that there was a hefty patch of metal missing from the underside of their hull… but now that the Fire Nation was back on the evil side, it didn't matter right?

… _Whatever._

Despite her slightly happy mood there for a moment caused by the thrill of metalbending, she could barely see where she was going. If this had been two years before she'd be completely blind right now.

… Well, blind-_er_.  
But after spending most of her time travelling from village to village, town to town, city to city, seeking out any other earthbenders who might have tips on metalbending she'd picked up a few things over the last year and a half. Even if she was really starting to suspect, with a rather large pinch of pride, that she really might be the only metalbender in the world, she didn't need to learn from a master. She could learn from herself. If there was anything she _did_ learn it was that you were your own greatest master. You just had to listen.  
Metal worked a little different than earth… well, a _lot_ different, actually. It was thinner, so the vibrations always seemed a little weak at first since it was rarely as thick or as plentiful as earth, but that was only because she hadn't learned one of the most crucial things about seeing through metal.

Metal wasn't something to use as her eyes, metal was almost like a hand. Metal grabbed vibrations differently than earth, it was sharper and colder, but it could pick up a lot more when you used it right, and especially if you knew what to look for.

Right now as she dipped the oar back into the water, she tapped it strongly with a flick of her finger, she could blurrily see the movement of the water, the fins of the fish underneath her little boat, and even the little hermit crabs scuttling along the bottom of the ocean floor.

She never really saw underwater like this a lot, especially not before the past few years. It was so… nauseating.

Feeling every wave and ever fish may sound like a pretty and cute ability, but all the motion and movement of the bouncing waves and flittering fish was really starting to make her feel like up-chucking.  
She was immediately reminded of the Black Sun Invasion. The submarines that that dork, Sokka, had dreamed up. _Jeez, that was worse than this._ She complained inwardly.

But she didn't dwell on the sea-sickness of the past when her mind suddenly landed back to that name:

_Sokka._

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_Katara, Aang, Suki._

_Where are you guys?_

She pulled her little boat through the water again.

_I know you guys all had stuff to do. And even though I was the only one that didn't have a city to rebuild, a palace to guard, new airbenders to look for, or a nation to run, you guys really can't be too busy to make a little time for one of your friends, right?_

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_I mean I know he was all evil and a jerk and stuff when you first met… and bald… _-she remembered the taunting Sokka gave Zuko when he started to grow his hair out long so that he could fit the Fire Lord image- _… but he was one of us, too, right?  
He fought with us when that loser Ozai was gonna use Sozen's Comet to sizzle us all… _

_He was trying to make everything right…_

_Why aren't any of you here with me right now!  
_In reality, she _had_ wanted to wait a little while longer before doing something as stupid as paddling in a little boat to The Boiling Rock. But that damn old man Iroh. She paid the Jasmine Dragon one visit (it took her a while to find it, too…) and he had managed to convince her on going on this one-girl journey after one cup of tea.

Well… he didn't really say 'Go risk your life for my nephew', but the way he kept talking about it, the way she could just hear the worry and sadness in his voice… it was just too much to hear from a guy that had always been so happy and nice to her. So if this could shut him up, then whatever… she would do it.

Her thoughts circled around the conversation that sparked this stupid plan:

_It was just a quiet afternoon in Ba Sing Se. Even if the footsteps of the people did seem a little hushed and hurried, as if they were all nervous now that the Fire Nation was back to being… well, the Fire Nation… it was really just a peaceful day at a tea shop. It was actually a little crowded, but no one was talking… she guessed everyone was just trying to relax and not think about where they would go once the Fire nation came back to reclaim Ba Sing Se.  
_'_Admiral Zhao is a ruthless man. But despite his inability to control his ambitions, he is still a very skilled strategist.' The old man said quietly as she had tried to drink the tea she couldn't really enjoy with this atmosphere. She'd known about what happened to Zuko for only a day. That's why she came back to Ba Sing Se, to look for the gang and try to get a rescue mission on board.  
__But only old man Iroh was there.  
__He said he hadn't heard anything from Twinkle-Toes-Avatar or the others._

_'Yeah, but didn't anyone catch him?' She asked up a little gruffly. 'I know Zuko had a lot of uprisings and stuff to deal with but why was this Zhao guy so special? Why didn't Zuko try to get our help? I mean he should've at least told the _Avatar_ that the 'balance' or whatever was in danger or something.' She could hear the disappointment hidden in the rudeness of her voice, but hoped the old man wouldn't.  
He sighed._

'_He knew the layout of the palace too well, and he knew Zuko is a very single-minded boy who is prone to falling for distractions. It is most likely that Zuko himself had no idea such a wide-scale rebellion was brewing in his own country.' Iroh sighed again, 'I can only imagine where Zuko is now.'_

_Toph set down her tea cup with more force than necessary, feeling reckless._

'_Well, what's your imagination telling you, old man?' _

The next day she was travelling again. On her way back to the Fire Nation… to hunt down this 'Boiling Rock' place. It didn't take her long; everyone was talking about it anyways.  
That Uncle probably knew what she was going to try and do, he kept warning her to wait till they heard word from the Avatar.

But she couldn't just wait for twinkle-toes to get off his bum and do something about this.

With the way old man Iroh talked about this place, it sounded like that once-evil-and-bald guy didn't have a whole lot of waiting time before he…  
Before he…  
She blinked unnecessarily as she pushed the oar into the now warmer water with a little too much force, she winced when the water sprayed on her skin.  
She was definitely getting closer.

But…

But she didn't have really much of a plan on how to get inside, let alone find the cell she was looking for. Key word being: looking. She hated to admit it but they probably wouldn't exactly have blind-friendly nametags or something.

_This_ was why she wanted to wait!  
She felt that, just like the old days, they were all just gonna jump on Appa, fly into this place, bust through the defenses, whack around the guards a little, grab Grumpy Lord and just waltz out of there… but here she was, her face green with motion-sickness, shoveling the oar back into the water, tapping it to make sure she was still going straight, looking like an idiot in her makeshift row boat.

… She didn't focus on how stupid she looked when she felt the vibrations from the oar.  
She noticed something. No little fishes, no scuttling crabs….

She dipped her hand into the water before quickly pulling it out.

It was definitely too hot to support any life.

She decided to wade the oar through the water a while longer before torturing herself with the even more nauseating feeling of how hot water moved. It was faster, churned in circles in on itself.

After going at least a half hour without looking, she dipped the oar back into the water, pausing a moment.

She tapped it and was immediately shaken to feel the hard vibrations of the earth in front of her, the hot water hurting her head a little. Land was only a few feet away.

_So this must be the outer ring the old man talked about. At last I get to see again!  
_She hurried with the last few paddles before the bottom of her metal boat scraped the edge of rock. She jumped out with anticipation; her bottomless shoes letting her feet hit the ground first.  
She immediately regretted it.  
There was nothing worse that this feeling.  
Volcano.  
The churning, the grinding, the _noise_.

She wanted to punch something. This was definitely one of the worst places she's ever been and she couldn't even turn back. If she did then she'd just be letting that scar-face in there down, letting that old tea-obsessed guy down, and would be branded a complete _wuss_.

She took another step onto land, her foot landing on a sharp rock that was hateful enough to poke her painfully through the callous texture of her foot.

Again she wished twinkle-toes was here so she could punch him in the face for not being here. But she just took another step, a little blinded by the tectonic movement but still sure of her footing as she had to start going uphill.

She quickly climbed to the top of the natural rock-wall, still feeling really queasy, only to get a face-full of steam and an ear-full of the deafening chorus of bubbling from the boiling lake down there she that had no idea how to cross without being seen, or even cross at all.

_Okay… this is gonna be… interesting. _She said mentally with a cross of frustration and challenge._  
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**Well, now that the preliminaries out of the way, onward! **

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	2. The Prisoners

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Note: Hope you enjoy! :D**

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Book One:

**Air**

Chapter Two:

**The Prisoners**

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The creaking of metal began another day as ceremoniously as any day before it as a man in a maroon doctor's uniform let himself into her open cell. His sensible robes were well-tailored to his arms and didn't drag on the floor like most official Fire Nation uniforms, then again a doctor in his field had to worry about the grabby tendencies of 'kickers' and 'biters'. But the design of his robes would do nothing against a 'scorcher' such as the one he was paying another daily therapeutic visit with. He didn't say anything as he walked across from her metal bunk, on which she was seated, her arms and legs crossed with little grace as she slouched against the wall. It had been too long since she had exercised the royal manners which she was taught from childhood, they were useless in this place. But even now there was something about the way she carried herself that wasn't hard to recognize as the great, though slightly time-worn, pride only found in royalty.  
The man took a seat quietly on the usual rusty metal chair.

A long moment of quiet passed as he took a deep breath as quietly as he could, she could almost feel his anxiety radiating off of him. She didn't control a twinge of a smirk.

"How are you feeling today?" The doctor asked with as much care as he could fake.

A small eruption of blue heat puffed out between her lips, giving her answer.

The doctor stiffened in his seat, his hands holding together tighter than before. The fresh burn hidden under the bandages under the sleeve of his uniform ached with the memory of that fire.

If there was anything about this place that was keeping her sane it was that. Those trace amounts of fear she could still invoke in those around her. She guessed she should've considered herself lucky that the Avatar hadn't stolen her power the same way he did her father's, but it was going to be the Avatar who would be very unlucky if she ever managed to escape.

The doctor shuffled in his seat, no doubt going to ask the next question just like always: 'Have you been thinking about what I said?' He never said anything different, though. Just the same textbook definition of her 'disorder'… she didn't believe a word of it. It was her own head; she knew how it worked better than any textbook.

But today's usual, stale 'heart-to-heart' was going to have to be rescheduled.

A timid knock at the side of the open cell was heard before the doctor could get the guts to find his voice again. The man looked relieved for the interruption. The patient was only mildly curious of the routine-break.

"Sir, we've received a… request… from the Palace." A meek voice of a woman spoke out from behind the corner of the wall, probably careful not to be seen by the cell's inhabitant, had trouble with that sentence.

_The Palace?  
_The patient's interest was piqued.

"What?" The doctor asked up, confused.

The woman explained further, even quieter than before, "The Fire Lord requires the patient's audience."

"Really?" The doctor stood up from his seat just as 'the patient''s head lifted from the shadows.

"Yes, there are guards waiting at the entrance, they said tha-." The meek voice explained further before she was drowned out easily. A girl's sharp and cold laughter brought silence to the other two in her presence.

Azula let out the long laugh freely, her guffawing cracked at the end with a note of sincerity.

"What does my brother want from me now?" She caught her breath as she asked the other two with nobility in her voice that she should've long been stripped of. "Does he want to see me prance around like a jester while he sits in our father's throne… _my _throne?" She titled her head towards them, her stringy hair, now fully outgrown again, fell off of her face slowly. Her golden eyes were still sharp enough to threaten the voice out of the doctor.

The woman spoke up behind the corner of the doorway. "U-um." She faltered. "Fire Lord Zu-You're brother… He… Um…"

The former Princess grew impatient. "Spit it out."

The aid quivered in fear for a moment before jumping off the ground entirely when a tall, uniformed figure appeared behind her and answered for her as it walked into the doorway she'd been too fearful to enter before.

"He has been dethroned, Lady Azula, your majesty." The guard's voice sounded metallic behind that mask.

The sixteen-year-old's heart picked up its pace for a spare second like it hadn't since before day the Avatar defeated her father. Something like happiness threatened her, but it was more akin to malice.

Hearing that all too familiar title after her name woke up a part of the princess in her, dignity already flowing back into her after that single sentence. Her posture straightened, a smirk taking over her lips. "Really?" She asked rhetorically. The guard nodded swiftly.

So her brother fell. He failed.

Of course he did, he was weak, an embarrassment to her family's great and powerful lineage. It was only a matter of time.

She didn't get enough time to gloat before the important details were explained to her.

"Our new leader, Fire Lord Zhao, has granted you amnesty and would like speak with you… in person." The guard finished dutifully.

That name… she thought that name and its owner had long since been dealt with… but to hear it now with the title of her father and her father's father… as well as once her own… she found her interest doubled.

"Zhao…" Azula's voice twisted that name with the wide smile she was now wearing.

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He picked up the left over cups from the third table with a heavy sigh.

Times had been rough lately, rougher now that the anxiety over the Fire Nation's reborn imperialistic habits were eating away at everyone who lived in this great, but not so impregnable, fortress of a city.

But the sixty-six year old owner of The Jasmine Dragon had other worries that were probably not shared by anyone else in his tea shop or in this city.

_Perhaps I should not have told her.  
Maybe it would have been best not answering her questions.  
_The old man wondered as he carried the cups on a tray to the back of the eerily quiet teashop. The determination that the young Bei Fong girl showed when she left this shop only days before was a dangerous one; she looked like she was thinking of doing something reckless. But he had not stopped her. It was not his place. Instead he paid her only words of warning and wisdom… but even now he felt as if the girl had probably already forgotten them and was now doing something terribly dangerous.

He sighed for the dozenth time that day and returned to his work, disappointed only in himself and his inability to get through to the young ones these days.

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_I really should've just ignored the old man, shouldn't've I?  
_Toph half-seriously entertained second thoughts even though she knew full-well that there was no turning back now. Still on the peak of the rock wall that bordered the prison-soup like a bowl, she held her hands firmly against the volcanic stone. She cringed at the sickening feeling of this earth and tried to focus on something else.  
Iroh said that there was a single gondola contraption that led prisoners into the prison… so that must be the most heavily guarded spot of this place, right?  
She listened to the vibrations of the stone, it wasn't long before she located the metal cables that were implanted into the stone about seventy degrees of this rock-circle to her right.  
_Ok, so if that's the front, and it has the most guards…. Then the back shouldn't really have any guards right?_

The logic seemed sound to her… but then again, it was hard to think right now.  
She just acted on her gut feeling and started her stealthy path along the rock wall. She heard that the security here was killer. She took an extra precaution and collected small stones as she moved, letting them form something of a blanket over her to give her camouflage.  
Travelling those hundred and eleven degrees without being noticed wasn't the hard part nor was it even managing to slide down the inner-side of the wall without being seen. _Now_ was the hard part… crossing this insanely hot lake without being seen.

She thought for a second…

_Ok, this _is_ gonna be hard._

_Water's not really my thing…_

_Even if I managed to get my metal boat over here, it would only cook me as I tried to cross…. Same thing if I made a rock-boat…. If I even could... Rocks are kind of famous sinking in water so that wouldn't work._

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_Geez, being an earthbender right now isn't all as great as I remember it being…  
_She admitted to herself as she was having a hard time ignoring the rivers of magma flowing a dozen feet beneath the surface of rock she was standing on, or on how the water lapping the earth next to her toes seemed to be burning her already. But besides the natural elements right now that were giving her hell, there was a bigger problem that was bothering her…. The longer she spent here thinking the longer she was giving the guards a chance to spot her, and she wouldn't even know when they were looking at her, too. And even beyond that, the longer she spent out here like a wuss the longer that scar-face was going to have to stay in there.  
She thought through the possibilities of her resources, feeling a little pressured now.

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The little fire in his hand bloomed and shrank every other second.  
His eyes ached the longer he let the light burn. Even if he couldn't see the fire in his hands, he felt it's little heartbeat waver as his did. He had to get his eyes back to being used to light. If he was going to try and escape he couldn't expect to get that far if it hurt to look where he was going.

He was going to escape… he had to.

He had done it before… and even if he didn't have help this time around, or any plans…

He couldn't waste away in here for the rest of his life.

For a moment his will to live burned a little too strongly in his emotions, the flame grew larger, shedding more light into the dark and dank room. He quickly extinguished the little flame when he needed to squeeze his eyes shut with the dull pain they felt.

He felt like yelling, again.

That was until he heard the laughter.

Guards.

They'd been celebrating the new Fire Lord's coronation for a while now.

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_This is either one of the smartest things I've ever thought of… or just the stupidest._

_Nah, it's probably both._  
She didn't care… this was the best shot she had.  
She gave a single shrug to herself as she set her silent-invasion plan in motion with one strong back punch to the side of the rock wall.

Nothing happened for a long moment.  
That was expected.  
But, sure enough, after only a few seconds of waiting anybody who didn't have extraordinary listening skills like Toph could still hear the rumbling and creaking of metal giving way. With that single punch Toph had directed a push of energy against the stone supports of those gondola cables. And now, even without having to see it, Toph could tell that with the little rock-alanche she created, those cables were definitely losing their hold on the rock-side.  
She could hear guards yelling to each other about what to do.

There was nothing they could do, as far they as they knew this was just an act of nature. But what the guards _didn't_ notice while they were watching the cables of their heavily guarded gondola lose their slack and fall towards the water was a five foot rock person leaping up at just the right moment and cutting off a rather long segment of right cable before it was lost to the water.  
The guards ran around in confusion, shouting orders at each other while they secured the gondola cart onto the prison wall. Toph was already back up to the top of the rock cliff, balancing herself as she slinked her way to the opposite side of the hexagonal prison, bending the metal of the cable into a single, thinner, strand of metal rope.

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The laughter suddenly stopped for a reason Zuko could guess as well.  
He felt it, too.  
A deep rumbling and loud crashing sounds, like water splashing.  
Something was happening outside of the walls of this prison.  
For a second it was strange for Zuko to be so heavily reminded of just how real the world was outside the black walls of this cell, but it didn't take him long before he was wondering the same thing the, now not-laughing, guards were.

_What just happened?_  
For a crazy moment Zuko wondered if someone was escaping right now.  
_It was probably only an earthquake.  
_He tried not to think of the fact that someone else might be getting free right now while he was still sitting here nursing his eyes back into light tolerance, but that word struck him.  
_Earthquake?  
_He remembered the last time he felt the earth rumble under his feet the same way he had heard the rumbling just now.

…  
It was almost… familiar.

… …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …  
Hoping this would work, she fastened one end of the metal rope to a rock twice her weight and the other she used bending to bury deeply into the rock-side of the mountain, giving it an especially strong foundation.

And with one last check of distance and air speed she gave the rock a single earthbending jab.

It was now rocketing towards the little island in the middle of the boiling lake, the metal rope attached to it was whizzing through the air behind it with a slinky harmony. By the sound of the boulder making impact not with gravelly volcano-rock but flat stone, she knew she had aimed well.

It only took gravity less than a minute to do its job when Toph didn't hesitate to wrap her hands with a protective layer of sediment and grab onto the wire, letting herself slide down the metal rope, hopefully unnoticed as the guards were probably flooding the natural disaster she created earlier.

But she wasn't so lucky.  
The moment her bare feet touched the smooth stone of the wall-landing of The Boiling Rock and before she could even smile in celebration of single-handedly breaking _into_ one of the most _inescapable_ prisons ever designed, she noticed that her feet weren't the only ones there.

… …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

The hall was quiet, the only sound was the roaring of the fire. The searing heat and sound of which were barely noticeable to a man who had lived with fire his whole life, and especially for the man who was now fueling this fire guarding this throne like all the great Fire Lords before him had.

But that silence was soon interrupted.

"Fire Lord Zhao." Again, hearing his name like that was enough to take off the edge of his irritation for the interruption that let itself be known while he was trying to strategize a new battlefront for reclaiming the great lands the Fire Nation once called its own before the little Fire Lord before him decided to let go of their hard work and return the territories to the unworthy peasants

"Yes?" He obliged the servant with a response as he set aside his invasion plans for a certain Northern nation, or more appropriately 'tribe', that had humiliated him once in the past and won't again in the future.

"The prisoner you requested." The servant responded monotonously, "Lady Azula has arrived."

A smile crept along the Fire Lords lips.

"Very well." He spoke up, from his throne, "Send her in."

"Yes, Fir-"

"Alone." Zhao's voice bit through the air quickly.

The servant hesitated, as was expected. It was unnatural to allow a prisoner, let alone one of such power who had been admitted in a mental facility until recently, to see the Fire Lord unattended. But the servant was smart enough not to question his Lord's order.

"Yes, Fire Lord Zhao."

It wasn't long before the 'prisoner', still adorned in age-worn rags and an unkempt and dirty image complete with unwashed hair, walked back into a room she knew from childhood as her grandfather's, her father's, and her own for only a short day. The fire shrouding the single throne was a darker hue of red than she had remembered it ever being when her family belonged in this hall.

"Welcome."

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

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**Phew, lots of story breakers in this one.**

**Feel free to tell me what you think so far. :D**


	3. The BreakOut

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Note: Phew!**

**Last chapter for today… probably.**

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**… … … … … …**

Book One:

**Air**

Chapter Two:

**The Break-Out**

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The moment her toes made contact with the flat stone she knew she wasn't alone. Someone else was standing on this landing. From the vibrations she could feel that it was a person a little taller than herself, dressed in a lot of metal. She stood still for a moment, her hair, now longer and even more unruly around her face than it was when she was twelve, hid her unnecessarily open eyes as she turned towards the other figure on this stone walkway that overlooked a giant empty area she could only guess was the prisoner's 'yard'.  
The man's feet shifted a few millimeters, but he still seemed glued to the spot… either he was scared of her or was still having a hard time believing that he just saw a fourteen year old girl do what she just did.  
Break into The Boiling Rock.

But Toph didn't get enough time to figure out exactly what made the man hesitate when that hesitation was suddenly gone and his feet were picking up one after the other quickly as he ran away from her and no doubt to anyone who he could squeal to.

If he managed to raise the alarm that she was here then she could already tell that whatever plan she was going to come up with, since she really didn't have one even now, was probably gonna go up in smoke.

"Crap." She complained under her breath.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

"Weclome."

That voice.  
She didn't need to see more than the silhouette of the man seated in that throne and hear that one word before she knew that she really _hadn't_ been fooled by the several guards who were all too happy to explain how their new Fire Lord 'overthrew the unworthy son of Ozai' and took the throne for himself, starting the beginning of a 'surely powerful and rewarding era for the Fire Nation'.

She wanted to laugh.

This man?… Ruling the Fire Nation?

It was worse than any joke she'd ever heard from her stupid uncle.

She walked further into the hall, her footsteps only muffled by the disgusting leather wrappings she could never call 'shoes'. She didn't pay any further attention to her attire as simply walking down this familiar hall was enough to correct her long forgotten posture and resurrect even more pride she thought she lost in that hell hole.

She broke the silence first, already feeling at home.

"I was rather surprised when I was told that the _Fire Lord_ wanted to speak with me," her tone hit 'Fire Lord' as if she wasn't used to the grand title, mockingly, "but I was even more surprised to hear that my brother had finally been put in his place by someone other than me."  
She made no attempt to bow to her Fire Lord as she walked almost dangerously close to the flames in front of the legendary throne.

"It wasn't very difficult." His response tested the temperature of her blood. That sentence was purposeful a blow to her pride since this man knew it was by her brother's doing that she lost her throne. A charmingly malicious smile cracked Azula's lips. He was always a challenging man, one who could never fully understand his pawn-like place in the plans of his superiors. She never exchanged much with him during his days at the Palace when she was a little girl, but even then she knew that what this man lacked in respect he made up for dangerously in ambition. "But please, humor me, young lady Azula, on how you were planning on overthrowing your brother." His tone was already full of his own humor. She gritted her teeth with irritation, marring her smile only a fraction. "It seems to me that you were getting quite cozy in that cell of yours." He added.

Just like all the men who sat in that throne before him, there seemed to be something of an infectious power of intimidation that worked on anyone who would talk face to face with the Fire Lord. The former Princess wasn't as immune to the feeling as she remembered. "That is unless you just couldn't find the means of escaping." His voice was full of mock understanding.  
After only a moment the form seated in the throne rose up, the red fire parted, and the formally robed figure moved down the stairs with the same royal pride she thought she was the only one to still exhibit.

The moment she could make out his copper eyes, she saw that they were staring at her with the most amused expression. As if she _was_ a jester for the Fire Lord.

"I must say, seeing you this way is…" A moment of silence passed between them when his eyes trailed along her image, fixated on the dingy quality of the rags she was dressed in and no doubt the smudges of dirt and grunge along her skin. She stubbornly made no attempt to move or peel her eyes away from his darker ones. "… rather fitting." He added lastly, his eyes meeting hers again.

Again her jaw clenched with annoyance.

"What do you want, Zhao?" She paid him no respect in title or tone.  
His smirk only widened for a moment, as if he thought her insolence was laughable.

"It's very simple, really." He offered that as solace before beginning his explanation of what exactly he wanted from Azula, the 'daughter of Ozai and granddaughter of Azulon, now passed'.  
… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

The guard's feet had only carried him about four running steps before he was stopped unexpectedly.  
With one slide of her foot and quick undercut jab of her fist the very stone under the guard's feet gave way, before spearing upward a few inches in all directions to enclose his feet in ant hill-like stone mounds. He struggled to free his feet for a moment until the girl caught up with him.

"Give me your clothes." She demanded.

"Wh-what?... Guards! Somebody!" He started freaking out.

She gave a sigh before her fist jabbed at his face, no earthbending this time. "Oww…" He whined weakly, holding his face.

"Sorry, but you have to be quiet." She explained, checking for any other footsteps on the stone. No one was anywhere near them, "Give me your uniform." She repeated.

"N-no!" He objected.

"Fine, I'll do it."  
"What?"

It took her a few seconds to really focus, but she's been practicing this lately: calling metal to her the same way she can levitate earth. With three slow but precise hand movements the metal of his uniform suddenly whipped off him and towards her, he yelped with embarrassment and shock as he made an effort to cover the cutesy flame-shaped pattern on his boxers, not knowing that his assailant couldn't see the embarrassing print anyways. Though she definitely would've made fun of him if she could see them.

She didn't need any help but a few minutes to put on the chest plate, shoulder guards, belt, and helmet.

She could tell she probably looked stupid since these were the wrong size, but if it just gave her _some_ cover, it didn't matter how she looked. Not that she cared about her appearance that much anyways.  
She turned to run into the entrance of the prison before stopping herself. She turned back to the man, her eyes staring out at the lake without any focus. She pointed at him threateningly, "You squeal and you're gonna get a world of pain. Got it?"

"Ye-Yes, ma'am." He gulped.

She turned back to the entrance but stopped herself again, turning back to the underdressed guard again as he was trying to free his feet.

"Hey, what's'ur name?" She asked up with her usual boyish tone.

"Lee." He croaked back as quickly as he could.

…_Lee_… _why does that sound so familiar?  
Whatever._

"Okay, thanks." She smiled with her own invention of mischievousness as she paid him that awkward politeness even though she had forced his hospitality just now. This time she ran to the entrance without turning back.

After the girl left everything went back to being quiet, only the distant rumble of disorder bothered the atmosphere. The guard just stood there and tugged at the stone around his feet again, quietly asking himself why he was always the one who got caught up in stuff like this.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

"There's been a situation!"

Zuko scrambled to his feet, standing up for the first time in a while after the silence he had grown so used to in the cell was broken by a single guard. The former prince wondered what kind of situation the prison must be under for only a moment, his eyes narrowing with spite at the thought that with the commotion of everything going on outside this cell it would've been the time to try and escape, before he was interrupted.

"Check all the cells!"  
He knew immediately that the guards were definitely unsure if this 'situation' was an escape plan or not, but even if it wasn't they were about to _turn it into one_.

Zuko hadn't been grateful until now that his door didn't have a window because that now meant that if they were going to come check his cell, as they were ordered, they were going to have to actually open the door.  
Small flames burned readily in Zuko's restrained hands, he closed his eyes as he let them grow. Even if his eyes still couldn't handle too much light, he could at least try to escape now that there was mass confusion. Maybe, like someone he knew a while ago, he could use his other senses to see where he was going instead of his weak eyes.  
Testing his senses, he focused on the sounds around him: he heard the metal windows of doors all around his cell snapping open and close, the snappings were getting closer and closer. The flames in his hand burned brighter as he juggled them hand to hand. He leaned his sore back against the metal of the door, ready for the ambush.

He could make out muffled footsteps walking up to his cell.

He heard a key slip into the lock noisily as it turned.

He squeezed his eyes shut tighter when he let the flames in his hands heat up even more.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

Running down the hall at the same pace all the other guards seemed to be running Toph used not only the vibrations and sounds of her own footsteps to read her surroundings, but the dozens of the guards'. This was the upside of creating such a scene, this way she could see where she was going faster with the help of the very guys who would arrest her if they knew who she really was.

But every hallway she passed was the same, the same layout with the same number of cells. It was harder to read inside the cells because of the lack of movement, but if she got close enough to them she could tell the 'criminals' (she couldn't really judge whether all of these people were worthy of being put behind bars… the guy she was trying to save right now was a good example of how differently the Fire Nation treats the innocent) were laying down or pacing or pressed against their doors trying to listen to what was going on.

But it wasn't long before she heard another source of chaos start up several halls away.  
The rushing gusts of fire, several frenzied foot patterns circling one pair of feet that were moving in a rhythmically sharp style that she could immediately recognize as the stances of a firebending master.

The closer she ran to the scene the more details she could pick up.  
The firebender's movements were sharp and precise, but they were also a lot weaker than she was used to feeling, exhausted. But he still wasn't slowing down, the way he moved so sharply, it felt like he was in a really bad mood. Also, the firebender kept balancing on one foot, as if he was kicking. Like he couldn't bend with his hands too much or something.

It must've been a prisoner with his hands tied back.

There was a one in a thousandth chance that this one hellishly tempered, well-trained firebender was the guy she was looking for, but that was still one chance she didn't have before.

She ran against the crowd despite the faltering footsteps of the guards around her that could probably tell something about her uniform was weird, or that she was a little short to be a guard, or thought she just looked stupid. She didn't stop running towards the sound of fire.

_Almost there!  
_She announced to herself mentally as she was about to turn the corner to the fire-fight, but she was interrupted from her mission. Usually she'd know way ahead of time if she was about to bump into someone, but this wasn't like 'usual' times. Her helmeted head collided with the chest-plate of some big guy who wasn't looking where he was going. She huffed with annoyance as she teetered back for a moment.

She almost lost her balance but she just tried to run past him. She could feel that the fire-fight just ended. Whoever that firebender was he was now stumbling backward, other footsteps closing in on his as if he was being restrained by some guards. She could feel the impact on the ground when the guards threw the guy onto the floor of a nearby cell. Toph tried to pick up her currently faltered pace. A big hand landed on her armored shoulder.

"Hey, you." The man who bumped into her only a second ago got her attention with a gruff voice.

_Crap!  
_She poised her hands towards the earth, ready to start send flying chunks of stone at everyone around her if they found out she was an imposter.

"Go make sure he doesn't try any other tricks." He ordered quickly, his hand patting her shoulder once more as if she was some sort of comrade he could trust.  
She didn't hesitate to take advantage of that.

"Aye Aye." She spoke up with an intentionally boyish voice, but in an unintentionally cheesy way. She grimaced at her weird answer before she was about to run down the hall to the prisoner who's door was now being locked up again.

But she was interrupted… again.

"Wait, are you new?" The gruff voice sounded uncertain now.

She wanted to punch him away like an annoying fly.

"Uh, yeah, I just start a couple days ago." She piped up, ready to start running again.

"Really, what's your name?" He didn't drop the subject.  
She was glad she asked for that guy's name now.

"Lee…?" She answered with her voice turning up into something like a question.

Silence followed.

"Oh, yeah, 'Lee'." His voice straightened out again in realization, "I remember seeing a 'Lee' on the roster." He shared as he started walking away, picking up his pace as he started running towards the gondola entrance like all the other guards probably were.

"Phew…" She let out a relieved breath as she started running down the hall, letting the other footfalls of the guards run past her, leaving her unsupervised.

She didn't have to remember which cell they had locked that firebender in, not when, out of all the cells in this row, the footfalls inside this one were erratic and angry. She huffed, catching her breath as she ran up to the door.

"ARGH!"  
There was yelling from the inside of the cell now. Painful yells that didn't sound right, like the voice of whoever was so angry to scream like that was already being pushed passed its limit. But besides the weird distortion of the man's voice, it still didn't fool Toph's ears.  
She immediately recognized that anger… though she hadn't heard it in his voice and in his steps this bluntly since before he came pleading to her and her friends about joining their side, since she was twelve. But that didn't matter right now.

She controlled an excited smile at the fact that it _hadn't_ taken her forever to find him, that the escape plan was now already _half_ done, as she felt along the metal of the door in front of her, trying to get used to it and find the lock system on it.  
Just like earth, it was nearly impossible to find the same exact type of metal twice… and it took longer to grow familiar with new types of metal than it did with new earth for her.  
A few seconds of his yelling passed before she figured out the layout of the metal and the earth welded in it. She punched her fingers into the complicated locking mechanism, dug into it and tore out a large chunk.  
The footfalls and yelling were quiet inside now; she hadn't noticed when they stopped.  
She opened to door as quickly as she could push the weight of it but she didn't need the use of her eyes to hear the moment the footfalls behind that door started up again. Almost like slow motion she could feel the heel of his foot lunge forward, his whole foot falling on the ground just as the other picked up. The way the foot on the ground spun away from her, she knew he was swinging his leg in her direction. Immediately she pulled herself behind the metal door she knew was too dense to be affected by even the hottest flames a firebender could create.

She heard the wind the fire flourish past her, but just as his footsteps showed that he decided to make a run for it she reached out a hand, grabbing his arm with more strength than people usually thought a young, blind girl like her had.

Toph had to dodge again when the former Prince kicked up his heel, letting out another burst of fire in her direction. She backed off quickly.

"Hey!" She called out with an annoyed tone as he spun himself to face her, his legs wide apart and feet flat on the ground, creating a fighting stance that most firebenders trained years to perfect. "What do you think you're doin', Fire Boy?" She yelled out just as she felt him pivot on the spot, readying himself for another attack.

Just as he hesitated from that attack she flicked her finger at the ground. A little pebble chiseled itself out of the stone and flew at him, bouncing off his head with a puny little tap.

A moment passed.

"T-Toph?" His voice.  
It was definitely Zuko… just a very tired, painful sounding Zuko.  
She pretended not to notice.

"Yeah, what other earth and metalbending girls do you know who would be here saving your butt?" She greeted him as warmly as the situation allowed as well as warmly as she could greet someone she hadn't talked with in over a year…

He didn't seem to care about her humor very much at this point, though.

"You're here to rescue me?" He choked out, his voice definitely not in any shape to be talking a lot.

"Yeah, well sort of." She brushed off the heroism she could've taken freely just now. "But I can't do anything if you're just gonna try and burn my feet again." She commented on how she could still tell he was in his battle stance, calling back an old memory of one of their first meetings.

A moment of awkward realization passed.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." His feet lost their strong stance as his posture weakened. She could hear how tired his breathing was.  
She didn't want to think about how crappy he should be feeling after being held a prisoner for so long.

"I can tell you have cuffs on. Are they metal?" She offered suddenly.

"Yeah."

She walked over to him calmly, but still aware of all the running and confusion in the other parts if the prison that was practically shaking the foundation of this place.

She walked behind him, reaching out. Her hands landed on his for a moment. She felt around till her fingers landed on the metal around his wrists.

"Okay, don't complain if this pinches." She warned.

Zuko spoke up as the metal around his wrists creaked and whined as it was being carefully manipulated away from his sore skin. "Where's everybody else?"

After what he could've guessed were a few days he had thought that nobody would come and save him, though he didn't blame them. He got himself in this mess; it would be stupid to think that everybody else would drop their lives to help him. But now that he _knew_ he was being saved, he kind of expected the whole gang here… but he couldn't hear anybody else here besides Toph. He would've opened his eyes to check for sure, but the pain was still too much.

"They're too busy for us right now." Toph answered with a little bite. He could almost hear something like disappointment in her voice.

"Oh." He answered back just as the whining of metal behind his back stopped and the weight that had dug into him for days now clanged noisily onto the floor.

"Don't take it personal. I didn't." Toph added. He wondered if it was true, but didn't have to energy to really ask what was going on. Right now, he could only think about getting out of this place.  
Toph seemed to share that single goal as she spoke up a moment later.

"Come on!" She called to him, about ready to run back to the opening of the hall, but hesitated when he didn't make an attempt to keep up.

His feet shifted on the spot.  
His pained voice took over the darkness after another second. "Uh, I can't. My eyes… I was in the dark too long…" Even if she didn't know what it was like to be so depraved of light that your eyes could hurt for hours after being suddenly re-exposed to it, she could figure out that it meant he had to keep his eyes closed in order to think straight right now.

She almost laughed at the fact that, today, two people were probably going to escape this place, and both of them were going to be blind.

"Well, then I guess now you know how it feels." She verbally jabbed at him playfully as she walked back to him.

"Yeah, I guess." He agreed, something like a smile in his voice.

"Well, come on." Her hand reached for his newly released one, she grabbed onto it, already feeling like his seeing-eye servant just like the one she had when she was small.

Only she was gonna be his _blind_ seeing-eye servant.

His grip tightened around hers as they started running toward the exit of the hall.

His hand was bigger than she thought it would be. Softer, too. You'd think a hand that sparked fire would be… not soft.  
She tried not to think about stupid things like that.  
She focused back on what the plan was.  
_Ok, so I found him… now have to get scar-face out of here without being noticed. I don't know what he looks like, but I'm sure he isn't dressed like a guard, which would be the only way to camouflage him…. We could always steal another guard's clothes, but that would take way too long. He needs to blend in with the crowd, but it's a crowd of guards._

_So… what if I made a crowd for him to blend into!_

She planted her feet onto the ground immediately, stopping them before they could even reach the main hall. She turned around sharply just as Zuko managed to stumble by her side.

"Wait, I just got an idea." She announced with a grin.

She let go of Fire Boy's hand and rubbed her own together for a moment, readying them.

A nanosecond later she slapped her hands on the nearest metal door with a deep and sudden thud. Her fingernails etched themselves into grooves in the thick metal. She gave a turn of her wrist and a quick yank and suddenly all the doors along the wall, as well as the stone dividers between them, busted out of place and sent debris flying everywhere as the prisoners inside the cells found that they were now missing a wall.

Toph stomped quickly over to the other side of the hall, dug her fingers into the nearest door, turned her hand, pulled, and even more debris went flying into the air as shadowy figures of guys and their heavy footfalls started testing-ly walking out of their broken cells before they all broke into runs at different paces.

This was the best distraction she could think of.

The guards would go after the prisoners who were running amuck and not one that was being escorted by a 'guard' like the former Fire Lord now was.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

The irritation boiled in her blood for a moment longer before she calmed herself, knowing it would only please this man to see her upset.

"It's very simple, really." Fire Lord Zhao started, his grin still as calculating as ever. He took a few steps toward the girl. His eyes didn't leave her as he circled around her, out of sight, still keeping his distance, not out of uncertainty or fear, but out of the desire to make her feel as small and as overwhelmed as possible. He knew he'd only extract minimal results from his efforts of staring her down, but even a fraction of a reaction from such a pompously proud creature as the daughter of, the once great Fire Lord, Ozai was more than he could ask for.

She showed no reaction to his stare, she steeled over the muscles in her face as well as her posture. She knew what he was trying to do. She was, after all, a master at intimidation, too. If there was any reaction she had to stifle from his efforts it was a smirk. How strangely entertaining it was to be nonverbally challenged by a man who spent most of his life in a lower status than you.

"You were once a strong leader of war, despite your young age." Zhao's voice picked up as he came back into Azula's view. She ignored the golden Royal Artifact in his hair out of spite. Besides, her interest was piqued by the fact he was _complimenting_ her. "Even your father saw you fit of this throne with only fourteen years of life." He added with an admiring tone.

She could've stood to hear more, but she knew he had an angle to this.

"Your point being?" She asked with attitude worse than could be punishable by banishment.

Zhao grinned to himself.

"He was wrong."

…

"What?" Azula's voice had a trace of anger, betraying her stone expression.

He continued as she wished.

"It was much too soon for you to take the throne…. And I doubt that after being alone with only your thoughts for two years that you wouldn't know this to be true."  
He took a step closer to her, invading the silently agreed upon space that was appropriate between a Fire Lord and a subject.  
Azula pushed the man's words out of her head, knowing better than to take them seriously from a man who, after suffering defeat, wasn't even brave enough to reveal himself as the failure he was.

Is.

"So did you invite me here just to try and humiliate the sister of the Fire Lord you already shamed?" Referring to dumb Zuzu as a Fire Lord was enough to make her want to bite her tongue. "If so, then I'd prefer going back t-" She turned her back to him, showing no fear or respect, having none to begin with. But her nonchalant self-invitation back into that hell hole of stupidity and madness was interrupted.

"This nation needs a Princess again."

…

A long moment passed. Her back stayed to him. Only the red flames could be heard crackling on the other side of the dim hall.

She composed herself before turning around.

"I don't disagree." She started with more nobility in her voice than ever before, "A nation does need a strong heir for the throne." She took his offer a step further with that. When she saw no change in his pleased expression she found herself even a little… shocked. He was suggesting that she become the next _heir_? There had to be an ulterior motive. A man like him, who was unbearably similar to her, wouldn't offer something like this to a person like her without having other plans that needed it. "But I can't really understand why you would call _me_ back when you know my past." She voiced her confusion, remaining vague about her 'past' out of pride.

He uncovered his hands from his sleeves for a moment, casually adjusting the fabric to show the fire Nation emblem on them. "But what was it you were saying before?" He ignored her question with his own, "Would you really prefer it if I sent you back to your cell?" He took a few steps forward, his eyes on hers again, "Were you close to a breakthrough?"

That pissed her off.

Not his words, but what he was trying to do through those words.

He was trying to get her to _ask_ for her title back.

To _beg_.

Her hands clenched into fists.

"What are you planning, Zhao?"

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

"What's your plan?"

Zuko's voice would've been drowned out by the yelling and shouting of the crowd, but right now the girl he was blindly following through the prison, literally, had exceptional enough hearing to find his words amongst the noise.

She kept running, all different plans running through her head.

She heard from Sokka and Suki when they mentioned breaking out of this place that they had taken some old dude as hostage and made a run for it using the gondola.

_Well, I guess I messed that up with my plan for getting _in_ here.  
_She admitted sourly to herself.  
_That thing isn't even hooked up to the cables anymore, and it's not like I can fix it again when there are guards everywhere… even if I did, I have no idea how that thing works, it would probably just break off the cable again and we'd fall in the water and-… _not_ get burned!  
_That was it!

They needed something to cross the lake in something that wouldn't just cook them as they tried to cross. Last time Toph 'saw' that gondola it had several layers of metal and even an insulation layer to keep heat out.

It was perfect!

Her feet seemed to get lighter with the realization that she now had a plan for more than just 'get in, save Fire Boy, get out'. She was quick to share said plan with 'Fire Boy'.

"We're gonna jump in the gondola, send it skidding over the edge of the wall, and then ride it across the lake like a boat." She explained happily, making sure that no one was close enough to hear them in the racket.  
"O…k…" The scarred escapee's voice was definitely uncertain about her plan. She didn't really care, _she_ was the one who had to do the saving anyways.

She checked the layout of the hallways in front of her, judged the amount of footfalls. It seemed like the major riots were back where they set free all those criminals and back at the entrance. Even if it was really crowded, they were just going to have to barge in and steal the gondola fast enough so no one could stop them.

She forgot to pay attention to where she was going.

She made a left.

"Oh, wait, wrong way. Yeah, the exits over here."

She turned around and made the right. The used-to-be Prince trying to keep up with her.

"Do you really know what you're doing?" He had to ask.

"No!" She grinned over her shoulder. "But if you have any brighter ideas, then feel free to take over."

"Uh, I don't rea-"

"Then just trust me."

She gave him one last tug as they exited another doorway, but this time Zuko could tell it was different. He could feel the wind, the steamy and humid air. His eyes almost opened with the desire to see outside for the first time in days, but the pain was enough to make him second think that.

He could hear guards shouting orders at each other, the new Warden getting angry and yelling even louder as men scrambled and prisoners yelled.

Nobody seemed to even notice them.

They were just two in a crowd of a hundred.

She kept running towards the giant metal and wood thing in the middle of the chaos that she recognized as their ticket out of here._ Just a few feet away now._

But Toph forgot one important thing.

…

"Hey, it's Fire Lord Zuko!"

…

Toph forgot that Zuko was kind of easily recognizable, not just because of that scar, but because for two years his face was around every street corner and somewhere near every Fire Nation flag in the entire country, school children would pay salutations to his portrait every morning. Nobody could forget his face. Not even a guard on The Boiling Rock.

…

She couldn't see, but she could just imagine some guy pointing at them like an idiot.

Everything went silent.

Footfalls stopped.

Nobody talked.

…

"Everyone's staring at me, aren't they?" Zuko spoke up awkwardly.

… she had a feeling he was right.

"How should I know?" She _almost_ joked. "Let's just get out of here!"

She started running again, and as if they'd been waiting for that she felt thirty foot patterns suddenly come darting after them.

_Crap!  
_"Get inside!" She yelled as she pushed him towards the immobile 'ticket out of here'. Zuko took a moment to feel for a window to climb through.

She focused on the movement of feet for a second, there were too many to fight off individually. She planted her feet on the ground in a wide stance, bowed slightly and raised her arms up, instructing the stone beneath her to do the same. In a second there was a tall wall between her and the uniformed men.

It didn't take any longer than a few seconds for her to climb aboard the disconnected gondola and pull that stone wall back towards her, forcing it to push the gondola. She could hear the metal hull beneath them shriek with the sparks at the unwelcome friction. Both her and Zuko lost balance with the sudden impact and steady uneven rumbling underneath them. The noise was deafening and the rumbling seemed to jumble her insides.

But then everything went quiet and still, there was only some wind.

…

Moments passed.

"Did we stop?" Zuko asked after a few seconds.

"No!"

She yelled just before there was a deafening splash and uneven rocking. Some of the boiling water spilled inside, threatening Toph's feet, but she didn't care. As soon as she got her balance back, even if the escapee beside her was still trying to find his footing and was anchoring himself to his feet by the seats, she didn't waste any time. Grabbing onto the outer side of the gondola her hands twisted into the metal material, corkscrewing a section of the metal under the water into a sloppy five-finned propeller.

She started churning her hands in the air in a single motion. It only took a few seconds for the lag of her bending to kick in.  
With a sputter against the rocky edges of the lake the improvised propeller actually was starting to do its intended job, propelling, but they weren't moving, they were too close to land. With one irritated kick, Toph forced a stone pillar out of the wall to give them a push start.

"Woah!" Zuko lost his balance again as they were suddenly rocketing over the water with more speed that he expected, Toph had to take a step back, but strengthened her stance widely, withstanding the impact head-on like a true earthbender.

The rush slowed after a moment.

"Sit back and enjoy the ride, your majesty." She joked over her shoulder, but just as she was finished with that little breath of relief another thing she wasn't expecting interrupted her escape plans.

The roaring of fire.  
She could hear it in the air, fire was hurling through the air towards them. The guards must've collaborated for an attack. She could already feel the heat burning her unnecessarily open eyes. But before she could even think of how to dodge the attack she felt someone step in front of her. The former Fire Nation royalty had felt the attack coming, too. He pushed her behind him with his left arm before his right sped through the air in front of him in one quick motion.

A second of silence followed before she heard a stronger gust of blistering combustive energy collide with the cloud of fire that had been shot at them.  
She could hear the energies eating away at each other, growling and gnawing, cancelling each other out and burning away in only seconds.

The man in front of her stumbled out of his fighting stance.

She caught him against her, she took a moment to focus on the underwater earth, with some difficulty, pulling it up with a tug of a single hand and giving their 'boat' another push in the right direction.

Her hands landed on his shoulders a little awkwardly as she drug him a few steps to the bench on the side, he was still conscious, she could tell from how he was breathing. He just used too much energy for that move right then… but it was still really impressive. She wondered just how much he'd been training over the past year and a half. Especially if he could do that with his eyes closed.

The gondola started to slow, but she stayed by him for an extra moment.

"You know…" she started with something of a smile, breathing hard, "…you're a pretty good blind."

"That's good to hear coming from you." He whispered back with his tortured voice.

… Again she wasn't sure why she was smiling when they were risking their lives right now.

Maybe she missed the adventure? She always did like a challenge.

That didn't matter right now anyways.

"I'll take over from here again."

She walked away from him, taking a deep breath as she took her wide stance and started rotating her arms again, getting her inventive propeller functioning. And just like that, her crazy plan worked and they were steadily floating to the other side of the lake.

It was less than a few minutes before she felt the earth of the outside rock-wall scraping the back of the gondola.

She went over to Zuko, picking up his arm and throwing it over her shoulder as she kicked the back wall of the gondola out. It was a little weird supporting him like this. Not just because she'd never been this close to the guy before, but because he was still a lot bigger than her. She didn't know if she really hadn't grown as much as she thought she did, or if he grew up a little more, too.

… But that didn't matter right now.

She ignored the sickening sensation of volcanic activity under her feet as she gave the earth another instructive slide and kick. She used her free hand to finish the movements a little sloppily as the earth underneath them started sliding up the side of the rock wall like an elevator.

She kept up the repetitive movement to keep them from sliding back down with some difficulty.

They were almost at the top before she felt Zuko pick his heavy arm off of her slowly. She just thought he didn't want to lean on her or something, it didn't bother her, she could use the freedom to carry through the constant bending routine needed for this technique more neatly.

"They haven't given up yet." He whispered coarsely.

"Wh-" She didn't have time to finish the one worded question before she felt what he was talking about, another wide rain of fire falling through the sky towards them.

But it was stronger this time.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

"What are you planning, Zhao?"

The crackling of the fire was once again the only sound between the Fire Lord and his predecessor's sister.

"Nothing you wouldn't." He replied lightly, his eyes didn't translate the humor in his voice, mixing up the balance of how strongly he meant those words.

Azula didn't say anything.  
He was probably right. Then again, she was _already_ planning possible ways of overthrowing this man and taking his throne for herself as they stood here in this understanding silence.

"But I do have some details to share with you tonight." He added, breaking the eye contact as he turned away from her, a distinct signal of how easily he dismissed her powers and abilities. If he would expose his back like that, it meant he clearly didn't see her as a true threat.

Her attention was stolen from the whimsical thought of assassinating him right now when that last word repeated in her mind.

"'Tonight'?" She spoke up, still sounding defiant.

"A celebration for my coronation will be held tonight." He explained lightly, walking back to his throne. "I had it especially rescheduled for your return." His voice was warm, "Hopefully we can enjoy the frivolities together…" He turned his head to his left, his grinning profile lit by the red flames in front of him. "…princess."

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

Another wide rain of fire was falling through the sky towards them.

But it was stronger this time.

She only wondered for a moment how he could've heard it before her, but then again, he grew up around fire, it must've been like another sense of his to feel the presence of fire.

She almost went with the instinct of dropping what she was doing to bring up an earth barrier between them before she knew it was unnecessary. Right beside her, she felt him take his stance quickly; he followed through the firebending motions without a single flaw in his footing or timing. It was as if he was a different person for a moment, like he wasn't a guy who just spent the last week in a stuffy cell, starving.

Toph shielded her ears when the roaring of the fire fell into battle again, just like before, but stronger. She could hear the fire explode on the spot into larger flames before being forced backward towards the wall below the guards.  
They made it to the top of the rock wall as soon as the explosion hit the side of the prison.  
It had been a long time since she heard that kind of power before.  
She focused back on the earth as she pulled up a new platform of volcanic stone, and let them slide steadily down the other side of the rock wall with more ease than their ascent.

A minute passed and she could still hear the havoc at that prison.

She knew that it's already damaged reputation was probably completely destroyed now. Especially since the same guy escaped from it _twice_. The thought made her a little proud.

They really did it. Two practically blind kids busted out of there so easily. Then again, Zuko wasn't really a kid like her anymore was he?

She pushed it from her mind as she hopped off of the rock platform and back to the slightly hot shore of the tiny circle island. She heard Zuko follow after her slowly; like he was listening after her… or maybe his eyes were better now and he was just looking where he was stepping.

It wasn't hard finding her little metal boat again.

It had only been sitting there for an hour.

She hopped inside, it was a little hot, but it's not like there was another choice.

"So now it's smooth sailing until we reach land. Then we're on the run again." She spoke up a little energetically as he climbed in tiredly.

She grabbed the oar and picked up the routine she made last time of tapping it to see underwater and check their position. Still hyped up from the adventure that wasn't quite behind them Toph didn't leave the silence alone for long.

"That was pretty cool back there, Fire Boy." She used the lame nickname she made for him a while ago for the second time today, commenting on the impressive fire power he used only minutes before.

"Yeah, I guess." He accepted the compliment with as much grace as she ever knew Zuko had, "But your plan saved us." He added hoarsely.

She smiled again, resisting the urge to punch him on the shoulder. "You're so lucky I decided to waste my vacation time saving you." She joked.

A few seconds of quiet passed before she heard him pick up his weak voice again.

"Thank you."

Her smile weakened for a moment when her heart felt weird. He sounded really sincere just then. It was kind of weird.

"I-It's not really a big deal." She brushed it off awkwardly, "I could break in and out of prison any day with my eyes closed." She gloated without any tact, throwing in a bad joke just for effect.

"Haha…" His voice almost laughed but it was sounded more like pain.

She almost turned around to ask how he was doing but she didn't have to when she felt him slump over.

"Zuko?" She called out a little worriedly, staring at the floor of the wrinkled, metal boat without any focus, but she could feel his breathing even out into a sleeping rhythm against the metal.

She smiled again, feeling like an idiot for doing so. She guessed it must've been how much this reminded her of the old days… even if the rest of the guys weren't here…. It still felt right.

"I guess you worked hard enough for a break."

She tapped the oar again, quickly feeling sick and a little irritated that they still had such a long way to go. But she was still smiling.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

**…**

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**Well, that's it for now. But Chapter 4 will be out very soon!**

**...**

**So, what'cha think so far?**

**Yay? Nay?**


	4. The Importance of Instincts

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Note: Hope you guys enjoy!**

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**…**

**… … … … … …**

Book One:

**Air**

Chapter Four:

**The Importance of Instincts**

**… … … … … … … … … …**

**…**

…

…

Azula kept her eyes closed as she felt the comb file through her hair again, the water rushing through the long, dark locks pleasantly. Receiving a royal hair combing again for the first time in years was definitely something she enjoyed. Even the way the servants' hands would shake every so often as if they were afraid that the princess would banish them for leaving a single knot untangled was enjoyable. The scrubbing at her feet and filing of her nails was refreshing.

It was almost enough to make her forget exactly how annoying 'Fire Lord' Zhao was or how she actually didn't know a thing about this 'celebration'.

Well, that was all for the better.

She'd let him weave his stupid little plans and the ruin them later.  
Right now, she felt as if the previous two years never existed, that they were washed away and combed out of her life just like the grime out of her hair.

Her quiet enjoyment was interrupted by a servant's voice.

"Fire Lord Zhao has requested that you wear this…" The voice spoke up meekly.

Azula raised her head from the aqueduct-like basin, her eyes finding the 'this' in question.  
A dress with the unmistakable touch of the royal tailor. Another pleasantry, despite the fact it was an order from the 'Fire Lord'.

She didn't mind dealing with the perks of returning to royalty… that is until she can find an opportunity to, like she had done many times before for many different leaders, turn his followers and assets against him.

The challenge of taking his throne was yet another pleasantry to savor.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

His eyes opened slowly, blinking a couple times, testing the light.

He opened them wider after a few seconds, a little surprised by the lack of pain. But even if there had been any pain he wouldn't have noticed, not when he realized he was looking at the sky, he was breathing fresh air, and he could feel soft sand and grass under his head and arms. For a moment his sleep-ridden mind had almost forgotten what happened earlier that day… maybe it was because he only had memories of sound and texture: the yelling of the guards and prisoners, the feeling of the wooden seats in the gondola, the familiar scorching heat borne from his palms, and the sound of her voice, how sure she was, how she didn't even sound scared or worried despite the odds against them, and how her voice was actually… a little different than he remembered. He hadn't really thought about it before, but from the sound of her voice, she didn't sound like the 'Toph' who left the harbors of the Fire Nation a year and a half ago, she sounded a little bit… older….  
He couldn't find a better way to put it in his sleepy mind, but he guessed it wasn't important anyways.  
He opened his eyes a little wider, but the dull ache came back. He rubbed them tiredly, his dirt-covered arm feeling heavy, he tried to roll over onto his elbow to sit up. It took a bit more strength than he thought it would. He noticed a coarse blanket that had been draped over his chest as it slid down to his lap. He blinked a few times, adjusting his blurry eyes now that he could see the horizon from this angle, he saw the beach at least half a mile away, a dingy little metal bowl of a boat resting on the sand, and the volcanic island beyond the water, high smoke trails puffing into the sky.  
So it really wasn't a dream.  
He really was free.  
He wanted to smile, but his vision went a little blurry again as his head felt too light to keep his balance. His elbow slipped out from underneath him. But just as he shut his eyes tightly, readying for a painful impact, something stopped gravity. He thought maybe he fell back on a rock, but he could feel what he recognized as a knee pressed between his shoulder blades.

"So the sleeping prince finally wakes up for his happily ever after." Her voice again. Still not the same as the young tom-boy who he hadn't seen in over year. He noticed her slight pun about the parallel of rescuing sleeping princesses in fairytales and had to wonder whether she had been spending some of the past year around Sokka or something. He overlooked his thoughts as he took the trouble to find his voice.

"How long was I out?" His voice felt gravelly.

"All day. It's almost night." The girl answered as he felt the knee ease against his back, leaving him to sit up on his own now. It took more strength than he would've liked, but he managed it.

He hadn't noticed till she said that that the sky was an orange, almost lavender shade now. It was already getting kind of dark

"I guess that's why my eyes aren't bothering me so much. I can see a bit clearer now" He rubbed his eyes again with his bare arm, still trying to clear his vision a bit more.

"Good for you." She said with a little huff, probably unsure of how to relate to what he just said. "Here's some food and water." Her voice picked up again after a moment longer of his fidgeting, he heard a little cloth bag fall onto the ground next to him as someone sat down in front of it. He opened his eyes, thankful that they were now even clearer.

"Thanks." He muttered politely before he looked up.

"I had to play the poor-blind-beggar-child in that village to get the grub, so be grateful." He didn't really pay attention to her words. He was a little distracted by the stranger who was saying them with her voice. His mind was a little too foggy to make much sense of how much someone could change in such a short amount of time. Of course, he had changed too: he'd gotten a few inches taller, his hair more than a few inches longer (he had grown it out in the same fashion as his forefathers as part of tradition), training had made his frame a little sturdier… but they were differences that barely anyone noticed… but she was definitely different.

She was taller, her hair was longer and fell over her shoulders, but she still kept long bangs around her face. She still wore the green and yellow patterned clothes of the Earth Kingdom, but they weren't boy's clothes anymore. And now he wasn't exactly sure if she could pass as a beggar-'child' anymore. But before he could notice any other changes she was already standing and leaving his side. He went back to focusing on the food, suddenly aware of his grumbling stomach.

A few moments passed as he opened the cloth back bag by his lap, loosening the string around the mouth of it. Out spilled half a loaf of bread, a fresh mango, a block of crumbly moo-sow cheese from a pigcow, and a little leather canteen that he guessed was full of the water she mentioned.

Even if it had been a long time since he had been offered such a rural menu he could still remember his days travelling with Uncle when this would've been a feast that the old man would've thanked the Universe for if not the person who gave it to them, and now, just like those times, the sight of such plain food made his mouth water still.  
Royal food never piqued his appetite the way this kind of stuff would. Maybe because every time he _had_ eaten like this he'd been starving, so now he can't help but feel hungry for it.

As he reached out to the bread, his fingers rejoicing that it was still warm and soft to the touch and not stale, he hesitated.

Without really thinking his tired eyes searched for the girl who had done too much for him already today.

"Thanks." He repeated, but not for the food, "Thanks for coming for me."  
Taking a lesson from his Uncle, Zuko had thanked the one responsible for this kindness before finally lifting the food to his ready lips.

The girl that had been packing all the other supplies she had gathered from a somewhat humiliating day of begging stopped moving for a moment.  
Again, the way his voice sounded, the way he said that… it was strange for her to hear the voice of that guy sound so sincere like that twice in one day. Not that her memory of him was of him being spoiled or too rude, but she only remembered him as a guy that did what he could for himself and never really accepted a lot of help.  
Kind of like her.  
But maybe, like her, he's kind of grown from that since the last time they met. Maybe he's accepted that friends help other friends… (It _was_ his Uncle who taught her the foundation of that lesson)… it may have been a while since her and Zuko had a heart-to-heart,( though, she felt like the fact she even _had_ a heart-to-heart with him once was probably more than a lot of his 'friends' got) but it was pretty much impossible to forget the danger they had gone through together all that time ago.  
And today, too.

She found her voice after a few seconds; she could hear him eating a little quickly behind her.

"Yeah, well, we made a pretty good team, I guess." She piped up with something of a compliment, trying to lighten up the sincere mood from a few seconds ago.  
He was quiet for a few seconds.

"If it wasn't for you I'd probably still be in that cell going crazy right now." Again the sincerity in his voice jolted her a little bit. She really wasn't the kind of person who handled that kind of stuff well.

"Then… I'm glad I got there in time." She answered the best she could, still trying to sound a little tough.

Her 'toughness' weakened however when she suddenly heard him choke a little. It didn't sound like it was just because he didn't chew or anything, it was different… like he couldn't handle eating. She was suddenly reminded of the time she had spent around the prisoners of an earthbending camp the day before she heard about Zuko. Prisoners had a tough time eating once they were free, they spent too long starving.

She knelt down next to him. She rested her hand on his shoulder; his breathing was a little weird. "Maybe you should rest a bit more. You're probably not used to eating that much right now." She spoke up with almost a worried tone. She realized a moment later that Katara probably would've been proud of her, acting all motherly like that. Toph would've rolled her eyes at the thought.

"I guess you're right." He whispered, his voice a little worse now.  
A moment passed before he started to lean away from her, she felt like he must've been staring at her.

He knew she could probably tell he'd been staring at her, but he was still trying to accept how different she looked, but altogether the same at the same time. Looking at her face a little closer just now, he could definitely see the Toph he remembered.  
She snatched away the hand that was resting on his shoulder and stood up. She stretched her arms over her head dramatically, one hand tugging down at the other elbow. She yawned for effect. "Yeah, I'm going to go sleep now… too… Cause, you know, I'm tired. Long day. Lots of… bending… and stuff... Yeah." She trailed on and on awkwardly, stretching her right arm across her chest as she walked away from him.

She just waltzed on over to a nice flat piece of stone, sat down, eased herself on her back and bumped a fist against the ground. A little stone tent went up over her. She didn't mind not having a blanket, besides he could only get one and Zuko needed it more right now.

She closed her eyes, not noticing a difference in her seeing capabilities, but she could hear him settle down to sleep, too.

It didn't take long for her to feel a little weird about that awkwardness just then. He was being kind of sincere and nice, and she just ignored it like that.

Rolling onto her back, her eyes open again and staring at the inside tip of the tent, she heaved a sigh.

She tapped a finger against the wall of the stone tent, a few blocks opened.

…

"Hey Zuko…" She called out after a moment, using his name this time.

He didn't move, but she heard his head shift towards her direction. "Yeah?"

"I'm glad I saved you, too."

A moment passed.

"Ha…" He chuckled with his weak, textured voice.

Once again, Toph found herself smiling like an idiot, feeling a little proud for no reason she could think of.

… … … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

The hall quieted down as he raised a single hand.

"Honored guests, it fills me with great pride to see the faces of so many of the Fire Nation's finest masters and politicians in this room, celebrating the new era in which our great Nation shall now be entering. A time of glory and re-expansion, to right the wrongs of our weak leadership, and to once again let the world know exactly who we are and what we are capable of."

The Fire Lord paused his words as the group of extravagantly dressed nobility applauded and cheered with what he could recognize as sincere vigor and admiration. His own self-pleased smile, in return, was just as genuine.  
He only spent a moment longer looking down at all the important faces of the Fire Nation's government before continuing his speech on a tangent with a clear and echoing voice.

"But tonight is not only for me, or for this country, but is for another guest." He started, the crowd shuffled slightly in confusion, "Let us celebrate another return of strength to our royal house."  
Individuals looked to each other, confused.  
Zhao recognized the somber faces of his political advisors amongst the crowd; they were the only other souls in this room who knew of this introduction. The party clattered with gossip for a few seconds before he demanded immediate attention after only a single syllable.

"The daughter of Phoenix King Ozai, and granddaughter of Fire Lord Azulon, now passed," Chaste murmuring could be heard throughout the room now "Princess Azula."

The door of the main hall behind him opened as the murmuring grew louder, but quiet enough to be cancelled out by the recognizably forced applause that followed the entrance of the royally groomed sixteen-year-old princess.

Before the talking and gossip could grow louder than the applause again, the Fire Lord spoke up just as the girl walked up to his side feigning obedience though he was sure she had none.

"Now, to show our welcome, let us resurrect a custom long forgotten of our country." He offered.

The musicians in the back of the hall let the music grow louder and slightly faster as the tune changed from conversational music to something that hadn't been played in this hall or many years since the last Great Celebration of Sozen's reign. Music meant for dancing.

Zhao had always been a man of drama and grandeur; even he found a few of the Fire Nation's customs too repressed for himself.

But this dance wasn't just for his entertainment of theatrics, but was also to satisfy a certain desire of almost literally parading tonight's controversial guest in front of the others in this room.

He held his hand out to the princess, not asking, but ordering her compliance.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

"Alright soldiers, now that we've learned how to be fearless in battle…." The young man looked over his young pupils with a skeptic eye, "Who needs a potty break?"  
He waited intently for the response.

…  
Not one little mitten raised into the air.

…

"I'm so proud of you guys." Sokka wiped a tear off the corner of his eye, his voice breaking a little. "Warrior Training dismissed." He sniffled firmly.

"Yaaaay!" The young boys ran off into the distance, their arms raised in celebration, happy for another end to a long day of 'fear training' that was mainly consistent of poking a tigerseal till it got angry and then standing your ground until it got bored and waddled off with a yawn.

Genuinely happy in the progress of his students the young man made his way back to the tribe where the late afternoon air was filled with the sound of building, chiseling, and… waterbending-_ing_?  
He wasn't quite sure what waterbending sounded like.  
Now that he thought about it, it always sounded kinda like:

_Sloosh Slosh Shlop_

Unless they were fighting, then it was more like:

_Shlap! Whoosh! ZIP! FLUSHAH!_

And when they made a big wave it was like:

_WATERBENDING SLIIICE!_

_FUUUUUU WWWAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAA-SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS-HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-AAAAAAAAAAAA_

"Sokka."

"Wa!" He yelped with a little surprise when his sister caught him flailing his arms around, performing a parody of extreme waterbending.

"What are you doing?"

"Uh-Just some battle stances, you know…" He answered quickly, "To scare the enemy away."  
The eighteen-year-old demonstrated again, standing on one foot while circling his bent arms around each other speedily.

…

The girl's expression didn't change from 'unamused'. "Sure." She agreed. "But when you say 'enemy' you _are_ just talking about the tigerseals again, right?" She asked with more curiosity than mock… but still with a lot of the mock.  
She started walking away from her brother, back towards the newly expanded tribe that wasn't anywhere near done.

"Hey, it's gonna happen someday!" He followed after her, his furry boots squishing into the snow awkwardly as he caught up, "I just got this feeling, Katara. Things aren't going to stay this good forever."

"Do you mean your _instincts_ are kicking back in?" She joked that long-running joke about Sokka's clumsy 'instincts', smiling warmly as she approached the new school house that was still under construction.

"Maybe." He answered with less pizzazz.

"Come on, Sokka." She goaded, "Everything's fine. GranGran and 'GranPakku' are better than ever, the tribe is getting stronger by the day, Aang is doing his Avatar duties and looking for new airbenders, Suki's guarding the gates of Ba Sing Se like she's always wanted to, and even though Zuko is running the Fire Nation we know he won't turn evil again or anything." Katara explained their current situation as accurately as she could, her tone rising and dropping at the different names only a little. Despite the stab at humor she tried when she used Sokka's ill-invented nickname for Master Pakku, Sokka could still hear the disappointment in her voice when she mentioned Aang. Sokka tried to ignore his own little pang of discomfort when she said Suki's name. "Everything's fine." Katara repeated mostly to herself.  
She just went back to bending another layer of ice onto the roof of the school building.  
"I know… but…" Sokka looked towards the darkening sky above him as if he was just checking to see that soot wasn't on the weather forecast, "Something just doesn't feel right."

"I'm sure it's just your imagination."

…

He hoped so.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

Accepting the Fire Lord's hand was the most infuriating thing she had to do in a long time, but for the sake of her own appearance, she let her fingers fall onto his. And just like that, his grip tightened around her own like a vice as he slowly led her towards the open area of the hall.  
The music was playing smoothly, the hall decorated extravagantly, and her dress tailored beautifully, but that didn't make this at all less humiliating.  
Not only being forced into this situation by a man of once lower status, but because of what he was starting. It had been long frowned upon, practically forbidden, to dance. And now, like a fool, this man was forcing it back into style.  
But besides all that, what occupied most of the Princess's mind wasn't the dancing, or the few sneers she could see being directed at her, but the distinct feeling she was being played. Something felt off about this. Her paranoia grew slightly.  
It wasn't a minute before the hand of the Fire Lord enveloped hers entirely and led her around to face him as they entered the large empty area of the room, every pair of eyes staring at them. His other hand landed lowly on her waist, almost her hip.  
She'd only seen this dance a few times in her life, and only while travelling. It seemed to be the dance of the refined. The man in front of her stepped forward, and then to the left, another two forward, and two to the left until they made a circle, his balance always leveled out elegantly with each step. A master at firebending techniques and stances such as herself didn't need more than a few moments to memorize the movements.  
Too proud to stare at the faces around her, and definitely too stubborn to avert her eyes from the man leading the dance, she resigned herself at looking him in the face.

Her golden eyes found his copper ones readily.

He only wore that usual smirk, looking down at her like she was a toy.

"Did you enjoy that entrance?" His voice was too low and deep for the crowd around them to hear, not that they would pay attention now that the royal publicity managers were encouraging them to join the dancing as well.

"Thoroughly." She lied. She enjoyed attention, but not when it was a gift from him.

…

"Everyone is staring at you." He added, stealing a glance away from her.  
She didn't look but took this opportunity to speak out of turn, "Are you sure they aren't staring at the leader of 'this new era' make a fool of himself?"She asked half-seriously, grading his expression for any changes, none. So she continued, "You came back to the Fire Nation licking your wounds and hid like a traitor until you could overthrow your own leader, and now you're _dancing_ on your victory site?" Her belittling tone apparent.  
He only smiled widely at her insults.

"I can do no wrong to them." He explained, leaning in an inch. "They're too grateful. I'm a hero to them"  
A moment passed as he took a breath, their steps didn't lose any speed. "But I do know that more than a few of our guests might not be very happy with _you_, Princess." His eyes darted away from her, as if pointing someone out. "People don't take banishment very kindly."  
The moment his words were done their steps had turned them around, her glance found the 'guests' in question. Her eyes narrowed.

"The Dai Li."  
They were staring over here with stone expressions, but she knew what they must've been thinking.

"After betraying their home kingdom and then unreasonably expelled from their new home, they had nowhere to go for two years. They happily accepted my invitation back into our forces." Zhao summarized mockingly, malice coating the baritone of his voice. "But I've heard a few _treacherous_ murmurs from them already tonight at the mention of your name." He continued, his hand tightening its grip on hers, "Or was it from the royal guards?" He asked playfully. "After being treated similarly, they aren't that pleased with your return either, I've heard."

Azula felt her jaw clench with irritation.  
This wasn't how she planned.  
She was expecting this man to stupidly surround himself with weak-willed, disloyal guards that she could easily steal away from him… but… He's concreted his security against _her_.  
She only kept following the pattern of his steps as he spoke up again.

"As you can probably already tell, I have a certain criteria for my closest allies. It isn't their strength or malleability, but the amount of hatred they hold for _you._" He leaned in and whispered lastly before backing away entirely, "So, unless you start training the servants how to fight, I'm afraid you've found yourself without a personal army." He was laughing at her with those words.  
She felt her frustration grow. How could a man as stupid as him figure out her plan?

"Zha-"  
He cut her off before she could put as much bite in her voice as she wanted.

"Also, I haven't heard a single word of kindness from the senators and royal advisors about your return at all, though they've said many." She immediately remembered the old kooks that would follow her father around all the time offering advice and pleading for his decisions, "It seems that you've returned to a nation that is no longer your home, Princess." His voice curled happily as that sentence ended.  
He pulled her closer, "The days of your father are over; you'll find no kindness or reverence here." His voice was almost whispered.  
She pulled away from him gracelessly, but he didn't let her break the movements of the dance. She finally spoke, letting the irritation out through her voice, "It doesn't matter what the people think." She answered haughtily. "It's the cost of all those with power. The truly powerful stand alone." She repeated words she'd heard her whole life.  
The grin on Zhao's face only widened. He led her through another repetition.

"I'm sure that's what your father thought until the end." He offered his understanding, "Now look at him."  
The mention of her father as an _example_ was enough to make her blood start boiling, she struggled not to lose control of her growing anger. "Rotting away in a prison cell, even more shameful than his treacherous son and farther gone than his lunatic daughter…." Her anger contorted her face beyond her control, Zhao showed only more satisfaction before he continued, "Plan what you will, Princess, but I can guarantee that, unlike your brother who miraculously managed to survive two years, you'll never hold my throne more than the mere half-day you had it."

And as if she had no control over it, but all in the world, she pushed him away from her, raising the hand that was once on his shoulder up towards his face. Anybody could see the blue heat well up in her palm before it launched itself forward. But before her blue fire could do any damage a large hand wrapped around her wrist turning and twisting it downward to the ground.  
The heat waves of the momentary fire evaporated and there was complete silence. The music stopped and the people were still, they were all only staring at a princess with a demonic face and a Fire Lord with his own malicious smile, both in improvised firebending stances. It was only a second before the Dai Li appeared, ready to arrest her.

Fire Lord Zhao raised his hand to stop them gently.  
His grip only tightened around the Princess's wrist as he stood up straight, correcting his posture. His voice rang out loudly as he addressed the people, "I'm afraid the princess is exhausted." He pardoned her with a chuckle, already leading her out of the hall, "She'll be retiring for the evening." He added politely.

Azula wrang her wrist inside Zhao's grip, struggling a little wildly for freedom from him.  
He only dragged her up the walkway to the doors. She could hear the publicity managers telling people to return to their dancing and 'pay no attention to the Princess'.  
The music started again as voices murmured to each other.  
The man who had goaded this scene opened the door quietly.

His voice quieted as well.

"You see?" He asked suddenly, tugging her closer to him, "No one wants you." He whispered as he threw her past the threshold, the guards in the adjoining hall running up to assist, but before they got there the Fire Lord leaned in dangerously close to his attacker. "Except me."

Without another word he turned and walked back through the door, leaving Azula with more anger than before when she realized that she had just fallen into one of his plans just now.  
The doors closed behind him, and on her, as she silently vowed to bring the worst possible fate to that man.

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

The Fire Nation birds chirped as they usually did in the mornings, their lives uninterrupted by their Nation's turmoil. But they didn't seem to mind becoming 'enemy birds' again, as far as she could tell. Not that they minded before, she guessed.

The fourteen-year-old wandered into what she could tell to be someone's backyard. It was an open field behind a little hut, but the reason why she was snooping in someone's backyard was because of what they had in it.  
Two rows of suspended wire held up by thin tree branches planted in the ground. And on these wires hung several assortments of Fire Nation styled clothes. She could tell there wasn't much of a large selection, but the guy she was travelling with couldn't wander the world in only prison-rags.  
Even though she wasn't sure how bad he looked, she could guess that it must've been kind of bad. Carrying him to the campsite she could feel the coarseness of his burlap-like uniform. And even if he hadn't asked for a change of clothes, and hadn't woken up by the time she left this morning, she felt like it was probably a good idea to pick him out something new to wear.

… That is, it _was_ a good idea until she realized that she wouldn't be able to see what she picked out.

Even if he really couldn't be stingy about style right now, she didn't want to wander back to camp with an armful of girl's clothes looking like an idiot.

Weighing the options, she did what she had to.

… … … … …

"G'morning, Fire Boy." She spoke up nonchalantly as she walked up to their campsite aware of his slow footfalls travelling between his resting spot and the supply bags, no doubt packing up.

"Morning." He replied casually as she walked up before he stopped in his tracks for a moment. "Why do you always call me 'Fire Boy'?" His voice still sounded really bad, but the strength in his steps told her that he had a lot of his energy back now.

She paused for a moment, too. Needing to think.

"I think it started back when I was staying in the Palace for those few days when you were Fire Lord." She started as she picked up her pace, holding the bundle in her arms securely, "It felt weird calling you 'Fire Lord Zuko' all the time, so I shortened it." She said simply, not really caring about the disrespect in that.

"Oh."

"Here." She spoke up quickly, dropping the large pile of clothing onto the ground next to him before trudging off to go sit on a nearby rock for some rest; she wasn't much a morning person.

"There's a lot here." He pointed out weakly as she felt him kneel next to the pile.

"Yeah, well, I didn't know what was what or what size you are or what you wanted, so…" She explained lengthily, picking at her hair a little.  
He knelt there for a minute longer, she could hear the cloth rustling around as he picked through the options. He stood up a moment later, stretching out a plain, durable, hooded shirt (wearing anything with a hood seemed to give him more confidence), a pair of pants hung over his arm.  
He knew he should get changed now so that they could return the rest of the clothes before too long. But he hesitated. The landscape was completely level and clear, there was only a large stone next to the place he slept last night, a little cliff by the supply bags, and another rock that the girl was sitting on right now, still picking at the ends of her hair tiredly. He didn't get a moment longer to think when her voice interrupted him.

"Did you find something you liked?" She asked conversationally.

"Y-yeah…" He answered simply.

A moment passed.

"Well, get changed." She advised with an ordering tone, now combing her fingers through her somewhat tangled hair.

"U-uh…" His weak voice stuttered again.  
It finally hit her again.  
Not everyone was blind like her. And most people didn't like changing in front of other people, even if the other person was blind. She could never figure out why, though.  
"Oh, yeah, it must be weird changing in front of a girl, right?" She spoke up with something of an understanding tone that almost sounded insulted at the end.  
She hopped off the rock and let her feet land on the ground, the same moment they did a little partition of earth raised up between them.

"Now I can't see anything. So feel free." She piped up with some humor as she leaned up against the wall she made. Really, she could see just as much as she could before… his feet. How shocking.

Another moment passed.

"Sorry about that." He answered after suddenly feeling really stupid.  
Maybe if this had been a few years ago, he wouldn't have really thought that much about it and would've just changed without the stupid wall. But… she wasn't a twelve-year-old kid… anymore.  
He pulled rags he was wearing off, picking up the, red-dyed, new clothes.

_I mean, the fact she's older now doesn't change the fact that she's blind, but it's just not the same anymore._

_She isn't some little kid anymore._

He brushed those weird thoughts out of his head as he fastened the pants, quickly tugging the shirt on as well.

"Okay." He didn't waste any time before he walked to the other side of the partition, finding her sitting against it casually, "Thanks for getting me the new clothes." His voice was full of something like embarrassment. She just shrugged.

"Whatever."  
She brushed off the awkward situation as masterfully as she did any situation she didn't really like.

She got to her feet and tapped her heel, the partition shot back into the ground seamlessly. Her stride didn't hesitate as she went over the supply bags that were resting in the nook of the underside of a five foot hill that cut off into a miniature cliff, feeling through them for a moment.  
She pulled out some of the food that was left over and leaned against the shaded wall of the natural little cliff.

"I'm starving." She muttered to herself as Zuko started to pick up the clothes on the ground. But the resurrected 'casual morning' atmosphere that felt so familiar to the mornings he'd spent with the others on their travels didn't last long when she spoke up again.

"So what are you gonna do about Zhao?" She took another bite of bread, munching noisily.  
The clothes slipped from his hands a little.  
She always did have a surprising way of breaking the ice.  
"Uh-" He started.  
"Do you have any battle plans or something yet?" She interrupted his weak attempt at answering, leaning back some more as she propped her leg up on her other knee.  
He was quiet for a long moment.  
She gulped down another bite of bread. "You _are_ planning on defeating that Zhao guy, aren't you?"  
His hands tightened their grip subconsciously as he felt the anger and hatred that infected him so deeply in that cell creep back into him with that name. Zhao.

Toph could feel the atmosphere suddenly get serious. She set down her food as Zuko found his battered voice again, "… If I want to defeat Zhao… then I need to become stronger."

She sat back up.

"But you're already a master at fire-bending." She pointed out. Being a master meant you were already one of the most powerful benders of that element, there couldn't be much more training to go through now.

"I'm not the best, though." He retorted grimly.

She was starting to hear a lot of the old Zuko in him now. She guessed it must've been because he was now talking about trying to get back what he'd been looking for all that time ago, too.

His honor.

Of course he wanted his country back, but just from the way he sounded… she knew this was also for himself, too. Before she could wonder whether or not that was a good thing her mind wandered back to the conversation.

She thought about who 'the best' firebender could possibly be.  
She had heard from Iroh that that Zhao guy actually wasn't as talented as Zuko, and now that Fire Lord Ozai could bend as much fire as a harmless kitten, there was only one person left she could think of.  
His sister.

"But 'the best' went crazy and now she's all… _crazy_." Toph summarized Azula ineloquently.

A few seconds later he knelt down to her side. He sat down, his arms resting on his bent knees, his feet flat on the ground. "I know."

"Then what are you going to do?"

A quiet moment passed as it was clear Zuko was thinking through that question intently.  
Toph made no sign to hurry him.  
… His voice interrupted the gentle howl of the wind.

"… A long time ago… my Uncle said something about learning from the other elements." He started seriously, "I can't really remember 'cause everything he says tends to sound like a proverb, and I don't like proverbs, but… I think, in order to become stronger… I need to learn about the other elements."

He reached that conclusion slowly, as if he hadn't thought of it before.  
She played with a pebble between her fingers on the ground for a moment, thinking through that. "But you're just a firebender. Why would you need to know about the other elements?"

"Look, I know it sounds stupid, but I just remember him making sense." He reasoned a little frantically.  
He was definitely acting like the old Zuko again. Serious but awkward.  
It was kind of… cool… in a stupid sort of way.  
She smiled for a moment as she could practically hear him mentally berating himself to remember his Uncle's words more clearly. She slapped her hands on her knees, standing up quickly.

"Then maybe it's time we paid old man Iroh a visit."  
A second of quiet passed.

"What? I haven't seen him in a year. I don't know." She could imagine that there would be confusion and hesitation on his up-turned face, though she wouldn't know what either one would look like.

"Come on. He's been worried about you." She patted his shoulder roughly for a moment.

"Really?" He asked up a little hopefully.  
She smiled again.  
"Yeah, he wouldn't shut up. 'Poor Zuko. Poor nephew. Poor Zuko.'" Her imitation of his gruff voice and unique inflection was a lot more accurate that any imitation he had tried of his Uncle before, but he wouldn't admit to ever even imitating his Uncle let alone that her impersonation was better.

"Shut up..." He ordered lightly, trying not to smile. Again it was good to know that even if he hadn't visited Uncle in a long time, he was still acting like his father.

Another moment passed before he spoke up again.

"So… we're going to Ba Sing Se." He almost asked as he stood up. It sounded more like he was trying to get ready for the journey. Like he could already tell it was going to be an adventure. Which this really had the potential of turning into now that she thought about it.

She didn't mind the idea of going on an adventure with this guy._  
_She never _did_ get that same soul-searching adventure with him that Sokka, Katara,and Aang did before the day of Sozen's Comet.  
_Maybe my 'spiritual field trip with Zuko' was just postponed for two years or something._

She laughed with something more than just amusement at that… it was almost like… anticipation.  
"What's so funny?" He asked up with something of a smile of his own in his, still battered, voice.  
"Nothing." She answered smoothly, picking up a few of the supply bags, "I just kind of like adventures, I guess."

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

"How was your sleep?" Her morning was ruined instantly when she heard his voice and footsteps walk into the royal dining hall she'd eaten breakfast in nearly every morning of her life before two years ago. She paid no attention to him, but that didn't stop him from talking, "Perhaps I was a little too harsh last night."  
He entered her sight, walking by her.  
"I should've exercised more restraint."He repeated a word of advice given to him by several sources throughout his life, "Or you should've." He offered it back to her with good reason.

"What do you want?"  
She didn't look away from her plate.

He chuckled a few breaths deeply. "Many things." He answered widely."The world, in particular." He sounded like any cliché power-hungry man she'd ever met, "But I need your help to realize that dream in a way your father hadn't managed."  
Again, the mention of her father made her fists curl.

"Even with my _help_, you wouldn't get that far." She spoke up, determined to shut him up before he got ahead of himself, "By now you've already guaranteed your downfall by bringing too much attention to yourself. I'm sure that kid, the Avatar, is probably already on your heels." She took another bite, never looking at him, he walked away from her and down the side of the long table, towards the eastern-facing window that let in the morning light. He held his hands behind his back, she continued, "You're nowhere near what my father was, so it's not hard to guess the outcome if that kid were to ambush you now, where you stand." He paused in front of the window before she finished, "So I don't see what's in it for me if I helped you."  
He took a second before finding his voice. All she could see was his back again, the artifact in his hair, the royal robes. He reminded her of her father for a moment, but she never hated her father like this.

"Apparently I gave you the impression that I was _asking_ for your assistance. I can assure you, I'm not." He voiced slowly, "Although… the advisors aren't at all pleased with my decision to keep you here, so I should warn you, they've set up a few… tests… for you to prove your worthiness." His tone inflected the sentence with interest, but she couldn't focus on what exactly he meant by 'tests' when what he said next stole her attention entirely:

"But first, let me tell you something about the Avatar."

… … … …. …. …. …. … … … … … … … … …. … … …

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**Yay for mini-cliffhangers!**

**I loved writing for Sokka! :D**

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**Thanks for reading!**


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